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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (24588)	1/3/2005 3:31:49 PM
From: Augustus Gloop	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90947

First off....I'm proud of my Irish heritage as I'm sure your are as well. Irish people are generally fun people ( at least the side of my family that is 100% Irish is ). I guess I do have 1 sot uncle on my Irish side but I have a sot uncle on my Norwegian side as well. Since I don't drink (I will go out with buddies and have a few beers maybe twice a year but thats it) I don't really get all worked up about the 4 Irishmen and a 5th stuff. If I were a daily drinker or even a weekly drinker I might worry more about whether that was true. On the other issue.....the PMI I think anyone with on once of objectivity knew that the market and the economy was in trouble well before Bush was in office. In March of 2000 we had a major quake hit the market and that was the start and sign of things to come. It stabilized for a period over the summer but then started to dive again in August of 2000. It kept going lower and got really bad when the presidential election outcome wasn't known until almost mid December of 2000. The market hates uncertainty. The Fed also kept raising rates at a time when they should have done nothing - that didn't help. When you add in all the Y2K things that we had done in preparation for the disaster that never came we had all the makings of a slowdown. Companies and people were spending loads of money on computers, software and general IT in an effort to avoid the big Y2K scare. That made the market soar in 99 and as a result productivity and jobs were high. But those numbers couldn't be duplicated going forward. In the technology area companies and people were spent after 99 and didn't start spending money again until certain technology advancements and XP made it necessary for them to do so. They had just revamped everything in 99 so many companies and people didn't feel the need to spend for several years. As a result we slowed down, the market dropped quickly, the wealth effect evaporated with sluggish stocks, jobs were either lost or about to be cut and Bush just happened to be the unlucky bastard that got the nod to start in Jan of 2001. The exact same scenario would have played out for Gore or Clinton (if we allowed 3 terms) with respect to the economy. 9 months after taking office came 9/11 and our fate was sealed on that day. People can argue with me or disagree but I know what I'm saying is correct. It's not because I want to take pressure off Bush....it's just the way things worked out.